You know, I like you awfully, Jess,
Phyllis, the same applies to you,
To Edith and to Mary no less,
Also to others, not a few.
Yet some of you are rather "mad,"
You choose to feel, I understand, a
Slight sense of injury, since I've had
The glorious luck to win Amanda.
I wish, sincerely, it were not
Impossible for me to fall
In love with _some_ of you--a _lot_--
In fact I'd gladly love you _all_!
But, when you come to think it out,
I'm sure my reasoning will strike you,
You'll find it, I can have no doubt,
More flattering that I should like you.
Fate sends their wives to poor and rich,
Fate does not send them thus their friends;
Then let my final couplet (which
I rather fancy) make amends.
This fundamental truth, I trust,
My seeming fickleness excuses--
One simply loves because one _must_
Whereas one likes because one _chooses_!
* * * * *
[Illustration: HIGHLY SATISFACTORY
_Mistress._ "I'm sorry for you, John; but if your wife has got such a
dreadful temper, why did you marry her?"
_Coachman_ (_the Fourth Husband_). "Well, mum, I had three good
characters with her?"]
* * * * *
[Illustration: _A._ "That's Jones's daughter with him. She's just about
to be married."
_B._ "Who's the lucky man?"
_A._ "Jones."]
* * * * *
[Illustration: A FESTIVE PROSPECT!
_Husband._ "Didn't I tell you not to invite your mother back in my----"
_Wife._ "Dear, that's the very thing she's come about! She read your
letter!" [_Tableau._
]
* * * * *